Master Craftsmen, Craftsmen, and Building Activities in Byzantium

Charalambos Bouras

To judge from the written sources and from the surviving monuments, building was one of the most important activities carried out in Byzantium and an essential component of life. Signicant sums of money were invested in the construction and ornamentation of buildings, mostly of a religious or generally public nature, since in Byzantine society sponsors reinforced their image and gained in social prestige when they created and donated works of art and architecture. This concept had roots in the ancient world and survived without interruption even after the fall of the empire. Although the role of architects, craftsmen, and laborers in producing such buildings was obviously a central one, accounts of it are very scanty and always indirect. No systematic archives on the construction of major projects have survived from Byzantium (as they have in the case, for instance, of the Ottoman projects of the 16th century), nor have any theoretical or practical texts of architecture come down to us. Such questions were of very little interest to any of the authors of the time, who passed lightly over the constructional details of the buildings to which they referred and rarely provided descriptions when singing the praises of donors and founders. The situation became still more difcult after the iconoclastic controversy. It is common knowledge that the substantive differences between the early Christian and early Byzantine periods, on the one hand, and the middle Byzantine and Palaiologan periods, on the other, also extended to the realm of architecture. It was not only the case that building projects became smaller, and consequently that the organization of their construction became simpler; it is also a fact that our information becomes still more limited. In the particular instance of the production of buildings, of their economic dimension, and of the individuals who put them into effect, the ow of information dwindles almost to nothing. However, analysis of the typological, morphological, and technological aspects of the architectural monuments themselves is sufcient to convince us of their continuity, of their constructors loyalty to the values of the ancient heritage.
This chapter was translated by John Solman.

532

CHARALAMBOS BOURAS

The publication in the early tenth century (in the reign of Leo the Wise) of the Book of the Eparch1 seems to have been part of the effort to reorganize the Byzantine state after the Dark Ages where building projects, too, were concerned. It contains regulations dealing with the working methods of craftsmen in general (masons, carpenters, plasterers, locksmiths, artists) that display similarities to the rules of the late Roman period,2 although the craftsmen were not viewed as members of any specic guild among the twenty-two provided for in the Book of the Eparch, as had been the case in Roman times. The rules deal mainly with the obligations of craftsmen toward their employers and with the role of the eparch as arbitrator in any disputes that might arise. By modern standards, the position of the craftsmen was undoubtedly a difcult one; when executing one project, for instance, they were prohibited from agreeing to the next, and could only take on a new building when they were unemployed. Naturally enough, this unique source of information has been the object of study and the starting point for hypotheses of all kinds3 based on the state of the guilds or the synaphia in the Byzantine world at a much later date.4 The provisions determining the liabilities of the craftsmen in the event of the project proving to be ill-advised or being abandoned are enlightening, as are the sanctions provided for in each case. However, the Book of the Eparch has not been securely dated,5 and, more important, it does not seem to have had force outside Constantinople.6 The frequent movements of craftsmen in the Byzantine period are strong evidence that in the provinces during the middle Byzantine era there were no local guilds, but rather informal teams of craftsmen formed on a temporary basis. However the case may be, a document from Thessalonike dated 1322 confers the title of master craftsman of the building work mwn) on a certain kyr Georgios Marmaras,7 and this imers (prwtomai?stwr tw'n oijkodo plies a form of organization broader than a mere team. In Byzantine times, construction projects were commissioned and executed on the

1 on J. Nicole, ed., Le Livre du Pre ` jEparciko n Bibli fet (Geneva, 1893; repr. London, Leo the Wise, To 1970). The most recent edition is by J. Koder, Das Eparchenbuch Leons des Weisen (Vienna, 1991). For the builders, see also C. Mango, The Byzantine Empire: Sources and Documents (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1972), 2067. 2 Where liability for the discontinuation of a project already undertaken is concerned, comparisons goire, Recueil des inscripcan be made with the provisions of the Sardis inscription of 459. See H. Gre tiennes de lAsie Mineure (Paris, 1922), 1:112, no. 322; C. Foss, Byzantine and Turkish tions grecques-chre , Byzantina 9 (1977): Sardis (Cambridge, Mass., 1976), 19, 20, 112, 113; and A. Kazhdan, Kritikh 479. For the situation prior to the iconoclastic controversy, see also J.-P. Sodini, Lartisanat urbain ` a poque pale ochre tienne, Ktema 4 (1979): 71119. le 3 on Le aiJ suntecni ai ejn Buzanti v ` jEparciko n Bibli onto" tou' Sofou' kai A. Christophilopoulos, To tro mische und byzantinische Zu (Athens, 1935); A. Stoeckle, Spa nfte, Klio 9 (1911): 120. 4 tir chez les byzantins (Paris, 1883), 17478, and Particularly as described by A. Choisy, Lart de ba e" th'" Kastoria'" (Thessalonike, 1992), 44044. N. Moutsopoulos, jEkklhsi 5 See A. Kazhdan, Book of the Eparch, ODB, 308. 6 C. Mango, Byzantine Architecture (New York, 1976), 26. For the last period, see also R. Ousterhout, Constantinople, Bithynia and Regional Developments in Later Palaeologan Architecture, in The urc ic and D. Mouriki (Princeton, N.J., 1991), 79. Twilight of Byzantium, ed. S. C 7 L. Petit and B. Korablev, Actes de Chilandar, VizVrem 17 (1911): 178. Kyr Georgios was a witness to a legal instrument.

Craftsmen and Building Activities

533

basis of a written bond signed by the employer and the team of craftsmen who were to undertake the project. In accordance with express provisions of the Basilics,8 a contractor could serve as a middleman, undertaking to construct the entire building in return for a xed sum. Such was the case with the katholikon of the Kosenitza monastery, for which St. Germanos9 agreed to pay a sum of 100 gold pieces (which he did not in fact have), and of the Enkleistra monastery in Cyprus,10 where, by way of contrast, St. Neophytos refused to give his consent to the commencement of building work until the entire sum necessary had been assembled. The contractor might also provide all the building materials needed, depending on circumstances.11 It seems that a more common practice was for the agreement to provide for the payment of daily wages to the craftsmen of different skills and for the materials to be supplied by the employer. The dynamic method of constructing buildings, including many important ones, with modications to the original plans,12 and sometimes with the demolition of sections already built so as to incorporate changes,13 could not have been implemented without the system of payment of a daily wage. A third method consisted of the payment by lump sum of only a part of the construction project (the system still called fatoura in the Greek building trade today). We have no direct account of this, but indirect evidence is to be found in the prefabricated marble or stone architectural members that reached the building site ready, or almost ready, for use.14 These can be recognized in Byzantine buildings by the builders symbols they bear, which were very probably used to indicate the names of those who had constructed the project and supplied its component parts. Most of the known examples date from the centuries preceding the iconoclastic controversy,15 but the tradition seems to have continued into the middle Byzantine period.16
8 Basilicorum libri LX, ed. H. J. Scheltema, N. van der Wal, and D. Holwerda, 17 vols. (Groningen, 195388), 15.1.39. 9 o" kai ` politei a tou' JOsi ou patro ` " hJmw'n Germanou', AASS, May 3:10; see also Moutsopoulos, Bi , 44547. Kastoria 10 Tupika (Nicosia, 1969), 8990. The same recommendation is made I. Tsiknopoulos, Kupriaka n, ed. D. Tsoungarakis [Athens, 1993], chap. 52, p. 175): If you are poor, by Kekaumenos (Strathgiko do not attempt to build, lest you fall into sin, and change your purpose. 11 In accordance with the provisions of the Basilics. 12 a th'" ajrcitektonikh'", 2 vols. (Athens, 1994), 2:19293. C. Bouras, JIstori 13 Extreme examples of this were the church of the Peribleptos, founded by Romanos III Argyros, and St. George of Mangana, founded by Constantine IX Monomachos. See, in this respect, Michel Psellos, Chronographie, ed. E. Renauld, 2 vols. (Paris, 1967), 1:4143, chap. 3.14 and 2:6163, chap. 6.186, respectively. 14 s du Proconne `se, Pierre See N. Asgari, Objets de marbre nis, semi nis et inacheve eternelle du Nil au Rhin, `res et pre fabrication (Brussels, 1990), 10626. Carrie 15 C. Mango, Byzantium: The Empire of New Rome (London, 1980), 26162; J.-P. Sodini, Remarques otie et du Peloponne `se, BCH 101 (1977): 425ff; idem, sur la sculpture architecturale dAttique, de Be cherons ine dites ` `ce, in Artistes, artisans et production artistique au Marques de ta a Istanbul et en Gre moyen age, ed. X. Barral i Altet, 2 vols. (Paris, 198687), 2:50318; idem, Le commerce des marbres ` poque proto-byzantine, in Hommes et richesses dans lempire byzantin, 2 vols. (Paris, 198991), a le 1:16386; cf. idem, Marble and Stoneworking in Byzantium, SeventhFifteenth Centuries, EHB. 16 zi and Its Decoration (Tu J. Morganstern, The Byzantine Church at Dereag bingen, 1983), 132; A. H. S. Megaw, Excavations on the Castle Site at Paphos, Cyprus, 19701971, DOP 26 (1972): 335 n. 42, gs. 18 and 19.

534

CHARALAMBOS BOURAS

Major public or imperial projects of a defensive, ecclesiastical, or other nature were ` constructed by the second method: after the materials had been assembled (sunagwgh lh"), craftsmen were hired by the day and implemented the project. The various th'" u items of work had to be coordinated, and the person responsible for liaison operations of this kind was usually a state ofcial with experience of similar tasks and not the master craftsman. Here, too, we see a continuation of a tradition dating back to the time of Theodosios17 or Justinian.18 The names of quite a number of these supervisors of large projects are known to us from inscriptions and other sources: they include Theodore Velonas,19 Kakikis,20 Vasileios Kladon,21 Fakoleatos, Astras and Peralta,22 Eustathios,23 Roupenis Armenios,24 and others. In the case of large-scale private projects, the supervisor for construction of the project, responsible for coordinating the work of the craftsmen, might be a secretary who enjoyed the condence of the owner of the project.25 As far as the building work sector is concerned, we do not know to whom the means of production belonged in Byzantium. By means of production I mean, on the one hand, the simple tools of the craftsmen (hammers, saws, drills, T squares, spirit levels, planes,26 pack saddles,27 and the tools of masons, including trowels, picks, and hods) and, on the other, the building site equipment, which a number of craftsmen would have used together (scaffolding, ladders, pulleys, ropes, winches, cranes, primitive cement mixers,28 and so on). The appearance of these tools, often unchanged to the

Examples being those of Cyrus, who built the walls of Constantinople (according to Theophanes, Chronographia, ed. C. de Boor, 2 vols. [Leipzig, 188385], 1:96, 97 (hereafter Theophanes), and of Hormisdas in Thessalonike (O. Tafrali, Topographie de Thessalonique [Paris, 1913], 33ff). 18 As in the case of Victorinos, who fortied the Isthmus of Corinth and Byllis in north Epiros: r Mbishkrime ude rtimi nga Bylisi, Monumentet 33 (1987): 6273 nn. 712. S. Anamali, Kate 19 Who built a church in Chalcedon, according to Theophanes Continuatus: A. Markopoulos, Le mmeikta 3 (1977): 425, and moignage de Vaticanus gr. 163 pour la pe riode entre 945963, Su te O. Demus, The Church of San Marco (Washington, D.C., 1960), 91. 20 tero Sumpo sio Cristianikh'" Who in 862 repaired the fortications of Thessalonike: E. Marki, Deu a" (Athens, 1982), 5556. Arcaiologikh' j " JEtairei 21 ` Mele tai (Thessalonike, 1939), Who repaired the walls of Kavala: see S. Kyriakides, Buzantinai 134. 22 Who, according to Kantakouzenos, repaired the domes of Hagia Sophia: Ioannis Cantacuzeni Historiarum libri quattuor, ed. L. Schopen, 3 vols. (Bonn, 182832), 3:2930 (hereafter Kantakouzenos). 23 `ne, Alexiade, ed. B. Leib, A droungarios who built a settlement for Alexios Komnenos: Anne Comne 3 vols. (Paris, 193745), 2:71. 24 Who, according to Kedrenos, repaired the walls of Thermopylae in the reign of Basil II: Geor noyi" JIstoriw'n, 2 vols. ed. I. Bekker (Bonn, 183839), 2:435. gius Cedrenus, Su 25 Such as Michael Grammatikos, who supervised the construction of the monastery of the Kos`re de Kosmosotira pre `s dAenos (1152), IRAIK 13 mosoteira: see L. Petit, Typikon du monaste (1908): 69. 26 See Ch. du Cange, Glossarium ad scriptores mediae et inmae Graecitatis (Lyons, 1688; repr. Graz, nh. 1958), 1307, s.v. rJouka 27 See PG 4:140. 28 There is no testimony to such equipment in Byzantium, but it is reported in western Europe and Georgia in the period from the 10th to the 12th centuries: see Barral i Altet, Artistes, artisans et
17

Craftsmen and Building Activities

535

present day, can be recognized in their depictions in miniatures, wall paintings, and mosaics.29 If the project was undertaken by a contractor, it is reasonable to assume that this essential equipment would have belonged to him. In the case of major public projects, however, the site equipment would have been so costly that it can only have belonged to the state itself. Characteristic is the following piece of information from the accounts relating to the repairs on Hagia Sophia in Constantinople in 995: Just for the lifting machinery on which the craftsmen stand and, receiving the materials hoisted up to them, rebuild the part of the structure that had collapsed, 10 kentenaria, 30 that is, the cost totaled 1,000 litrai of gold. No study has yet been conducted of the relationship between the technology of war engines or shipbuilding and that of construction sites, possibly permitting the formation of hypotheses about the use of some of the same engines. It is apparent from indirect references that the Byzantine monasteries possessed their own equipment, at least as far as tools were concerned: the severe penances specied by Theodore of Stoudios31 are testimony to his concern that the masons tools belonging to the monastery should be looked after carefully and maintained. In the Byzantine period, unlike classical antiquity, we have no information as to the wages paid to craftsmen. Such wages differed in any case from place to place and in accordance with the craftsmans trade and the season of the year. Cyril Mango has investigated these wages and their purchasing power in early Christian times,32 but once again the information is of limited extent. The duration of the craftsmans working day is noted loosely in the Hypotyposis of St. Christodoulos of Patmos33 as being from dawn till dusk. The ve-day week recorded by the same document was probably an exception caused by the living conditions peculiar to the island in the eleventh century. As a result of our ignorance of the wages received by craftsmen and of their purchas-

production artistique au moyen age (as above, note 15), 2:324 (P. Skubiszewki) and 321 (N. Thierry), respectively. Equipment of this kind was probably to be found in Byzantium, on the sites of large projects. Among similar machinery one could cite the kneading machine powered by animals and invented by St. Athanasios the Athonite: see L. Petit, Vie de Saint Athanase lAthonite, AB 25 (1906): 63. 29 ptou kai wn tinw'n xulourgou' marmaroglu kti stou ejpi ` palai sei" ejrgalei A. K. Orlandos, Parasta ` buzantinw'n mnhmei wn, Pepragme ou na tou' Q dieqnou'" buzantinologikou' sunedri ocristianikw'n kai te cnh wJ" phgh gia th n mesaiwnikh (Athens, 1954), 1:32939, gs. 5763; A. Louvi-Kizi, JH buzantinh , jEqnografika 6 (1989): 11520. tecnikh 30 n oiJ tecni'tai iJsta ` ta na" ta ` " mhcana ` " th'" ajno dou, di w menoi kai `" u na" deco menoi la" ajnagome eij" mo moun to ` peptwko ", kenthna ria i. Michaelis Glycae, Annales, ed. I. Bekker (Bonn, 1836), 576 (herevjkodo after Glykas). 31 tou ta rou tou' Stoudi ` euJrisko mena, PG 99:1744. Qeodw 32 Mango, Byzantium, 40ff. In a case in which accounts were rendered for 200 gold pieces spent on poque des Pale ologues, the monastery of Bebaia Elpis (H. Delehaye, Deux typica byzantins de le moires de lAcade mie Royale de Belgique 13.4 [1921]: 104), things are equally unclear. See also in this Me ntio twn Palaiolo gwn. Oikonomika kai politistika faino mena, in Eujfro respect, A. E. Laiou, Sto Buza ` n Mano lh Catzhda kh (Athens, 1991), 1:392 n. 36. sunon. Afie j rwma sto 33 MM 6:68.

536

CHARALAMBOS BOURAS

ing power, it is impossible to produce even an approximation (on the basis of the quantity of work of which we know modern craftsmen to be capable) of the percentage of the total cash investment in the specic monument represented by the value of human labor. We can be certain, however, that the craftsmen of Constantinople and the provinces would have been paid in cash and not in kind.34 The production of architectural work also often involved the participation of unpaid persons. These might be monks building their own monastery, or the enthusiastic founders of churches and monasteries who were later proclaimed to be persons of special sanctity (hosioi). The written sources, and the hagiographical texts in particular, contain a considerable amount of indirect information about the role these people played in construction, whether as organizers and supervisors35 or in other cases as mere manual laborers.36 The best-known example is that of St. Athanasios the Athonite,37 who in fact died when the katholikon of the monastery of the Great Lavra collapsed as it was being built,38 possibly in 1001. Other famous anchorites of the Greek world were also known for their enthusiasm as builders,39 including Hosios Nikon the Metanoeite,40 Hosios Euthymios the Younger,41 St. Germanos,42 Hosios Meletios,43 and St. Paul of Mount Latmos.44 The written sources also mention the names of ordinary monks who were builders: Daniel45 was among those killed in the accident at Lavra; there was also a Master Gregorios 46 at Lavra, though it is unclear whether he was a craftsman; at Vatopedi an inscription gives the name of one Methodios,47 and another at Docheiariou reth" eij" th doulo" tecni ` n ktistikh n);48 at fers to Theodoulos, craftsman in building (Qeo Pantokrator monastery in the Meteora we nd a reference to Serapion, monk and mason;49 Iakovos50 is mentioned at the Tsipiana monastery, and in distant Russia lived

34 tan ejkcrhmatisme a in Rodwnia baqmo h nh hJ mesobuzantinh oijkonomi , N. Oikonomides, Se poio saka (Rethymnon, 1994), 36371. sto n M. I. Manou timh 35 a (Belgrade, 1986), gs. a, 125152: see S. Petkovic , Morac As in the case of St. Sabas in Morac 5152. 36 Stone carrying for the building of the monastery by St. Paul, for the purpose of asceticism and against sleep: see T. Wiegand, Der Latmos, Milet 3.1 (1913): 108, 138. 37 See Petit, Vie de Saint Athanase, 3338. 38 Ibid., 7677. 39 According to Orlandos: see Arc.Buz.Mnhm. j JEll. 5 (193940): 39. 40 o" Ni kwno" tou' Metanoei'te, Ne o" JEll. 3.2 (1906): 152, 153, 164, 170, 171, 193. Sp. Lambros, JO bi 41 L. Petit, Vie et ofce de Saint Euthyme le jeune, ROC 8 (1903): 168205. 42 o" kai politei a tou' JOsi ou patro " hJmw'n Germanou', AASS, May 3:10ff. Bi 43 o" tou' JOsi ou patro ou, ed. C. Papadopoulos (Athens, 1968), 43, 5153. " hJmw'n Meleti Bi 44 Wiegand, Der Latmos. 45 ga" Sunaxaristh " (Athens, 1983), 67. Petit, Vie de Saint Athanase, 76; K. Doukakis, Me 46 r die Geschichte der Athosklo P. Meyer, Die Haupturkunden fu stern (Leipzig, 1894), 130. 47 tiennes de lAthos (Paris, 1904), 15. G. Millet, J. Pargoire, and L. Petit, Recueil des inscriptions chre 48 Stoudi tou Qhsauro nou kai " (Venice, 1581), 201. Damaskhnou' tou' uJpodiako 49 P. Yspenskii, Puteshestvie v Meteorskie i Osoolimpitskie Monastyri v. Fessalii (St. Petersburg, 1896), 4089. 50 sei" hJmw'n ajna ` th ` n JElla da, Delt.Crist. Arc. Y. Lambakis, Perihgh j JEt. 3 (1902): 2425, and polin monai ` Gorgoephko ` jEpa ` th ` n Tri ou, Barsw'n kai nw Cre pa", EEBS 29 N. Moutsopoulos, AiJ para (1959): 400.

Craftsmen and Building Activities

537

a certain Ioannikios, monk and builder.51 We can assume that there would have been many more of these monk-builders, members of monastic communities, who provided their services as craftsmen free of charge. A comparison with the building activities of the monks of the West during the same period lies, of course, outside the scope of this discussion. e labor, the institution by which citizens were obliged to offer their Forced or corve services to the state or some other authority, does not seem to have been implemented in Byzantium where building work was concerned,52 with the exception of emergencies in which towns or positions had to be fortied rapidly or have their walls repaired.53 What was called kastroktisia (construction of fortresses) had the same purpose but was e a scal charge.54 One known instance of the construction of fortications by corve 55 an compelled ten labor is that related by Kantakouzenos, in which Stefan IV Dus thousand people to take part in building the walls of Berroia. Sailors from the imperial eet were also likely to nd themselves being used on major construction projects. Their experience in the handling of winches and pulleys and in lifting heavy weights would certainly have contributed to their suitability for work on the building sites for large projects. The sources tell us, however, that the employment of ships crews on construction work also had another purpose: so as to prevent the mob of sailors from becoming more disorderly through idleness. 56 The best-known examples of the use of sailors are the construction by Nikephoros Phokas of the church of the Theotokos in Crete57 and of the Nea Ekklesia in Constantinople in the reign of Basil I,58 the latter being said to have been the cause of serious losses during the war at sea against the Arabs.59 The use of prisoners of war for work on building projects, including some of the most elaborate, as some scholars have hypothesized,60 is not documented by the texts and would not appear to be borne out by the facts.
riale arche ologique 14 (1905): 132, no. 5; see also N. Bees, B. Latischew, Bulletin de la commission Impe ` Buzantinw'n ejpigrafw'n ne konta cristianikw'n kai ai ajnagnw sei", Arc. Penth j jEf. (1911): 107. 52 , ODB 536. M. Bartusis, Corvee 53 a sto Buza ntio, Byzantina 11 (1982): 22ff, and esp. 32 n. 69, A. Stavridou-Zafraka, H ajggarei where various examples are given. 54 a: Einige Bemerkungen u S. Trojanos, Kastrokthsi ber die nanziellen Grundlagen des Festungbaues im byzantinischen Reich, Byzantina 1 (1969): 4157. 55 Kantakouzenos, 3:124.2124. 56 ` scola zwn oJ nautiko `" o tero" ge noito Theophanes Continuatus, ed. I. Bekker n mh clo" ajtakto wJ" a (Bonn, 1838), 308. 57 The church was visited approximately a century after its foundation by Michael Attaleiates, who preserves the obviously mistaken assertion that it was built in three days, presumably in order to refer to the large number of sailors from the eet: and of the craftsmen in the ships and of working ` pollw'n o oi" kai ` ceirw'n ntwn tecnitw'n ejn toi'" ploi hands to be numbered in tens of thousands (kai sin ajriqmoume nwn). See Michaelis Attaliotae Historia, ed. I. Bekker (Bonn, 1858), 226. See also ejn muria ` to hma aujtou' sio" Dia kono" kai ` poi th" (Herakleion, 1960), 37, N. Panagiotakis, Qeodo Alwsi" th'" Krh 38 n. 103. 58 Theophanes Continuatus, 843. 59 Ioannis Zonarae Epitome historiarum, ed. T. Buttner-Wobst (Bonn, 184197), 3:432 (hereafter Zonaras). 60 diakosmh sei" eij" ta ` buzantina mnhmei'a th'" JElla do", Praktika CristiaG. Sotiriou, Arabikai j a" (1933): 8889. nikh'" Arcaiologikh' j " JEtairei
51

538

CHARALAMBOS BOURAS

The craftsmen of Byzantium belonged to the lower social class. The physical punishments provided for in the Book of the Eparch61 conrm this. The conduct toward the craftsmen of a supervisor named Stephanos,62 when palace buildings were being erected around 700, is characteristic. There were also cases of builders who were paroikoi (dependent peasants), such as Eustathios of the Great Lavra.63 The craftsmen of Byzantium, whatever their trade, worked to make a living and not for the joy of creative activity, and this was particularly true of construction workers, whose jobs were tiring and dangerous. It is no coincidence that, although amateur painters have been identied by name in Byzantium,64 the same is not true of builders or master craftsmen. It is clear that in the medieval mode of production there was no distinction between the design of the project and its execution,65 and consequently the role of the architect, as we are familiar with it in classical antiquity and later during the Renaissance, was nonexistent. Much has been written about the gradual disappearance of the term architect, and of the special kind of education that architects received, during the late Roman and early Christian periods, both in Byzantium and in the West. Much has also been said about the shift at a later date, during the Renaissance, in the concept of the artist, which ceased to be that of a manual worker and became that of the creator by form. That discussion, however, lies outside the scope of this chapter. Although Byzantine master craftsmen, like their contemporaries in the West, certainly had to solve a whole host of problems, they belonged to the guild or team of craftsmen and were not paid separately for designing the project. Their training was empirical and traditional, not theoretical. A knowledge of mathematics has always been decisive where theory is concerned. It is common knowledge that mathematics was at a low ebb during the middle Byzantine period, and very little progress was made during the time of the Palaiologoi.66 Such knowledge as existed was certainly not available to the practitioners of architecture, who at best would know how to solve practical

61 See Koder, Eparchenbuch, 140: while contractors who break their contracts are to be punished ` ` ajqeth sante" ejrgola boi dia ` darmou' kai by beating and shaving of the head and banishment (oiJ de ` ejxori a" swfronize sqwsan). koura'" kai 62 Theophanes, 367: and in order to urge them on he set over them Stephanos the Persian, his sakellarios and chief eunuch, a most bloodthirsty and cruel master and overlord, who did not conne ` ejpe kthn sthsen ejpei himself to maltreating the laborers but stoned both them and their foremen (kai rion kai ` prwtoeunou'con, ku ` ejxousiasth an o fanon to ` n Pe rshn, sakella rion aujtou' kai ` n li nta aiJmoSte ` ajphnh'). ron kai bo 63 Mentioned in a document of 974: Actes de Lavra, ed. P. Lemerle, A. Guillou, N. Svoronos, and D. Papachryssanthou, Archives de lAthos, 4 vols. (Paris, 197081), 1:110 (doc. 6, line 17). 64 N. Oikonomides, Lartiste amateur ` a Byzance, in Barral i Altet, Artistes, artisans et production artistique au moyen age, 1:4550. 65 Perhaps the sole reference to a building as being designed is found in the Life of St. Ioannikios, AASS, Nov. 2, 1:407C. 66 See H. Hunger, Die hochsprachliche profane Literatur der Byzantiner (Munich, 1978), 2:22160; D. Pingree, Mathematics, ODB, 131314. For the practical applications of mathematics, see J. Leometrie et Ge odesie, Abstracts of Short Papers, 17th International Byzantine Congress (Washingfort, Ge ome `tres et ton, D.C., 1986), 191, and in particular, idem, Le cadastre de Radolivos (1103): Les ge matiques, TM 8 (1981): 27678, 285. leur mathe

Craftsmen and Building Activities

539

problems in geometry67 or simple arithmetic. The only handbook of calculations containing problems connected with the organization of building projects to have come down to us dates from the period after the fall of Constantinople.68 As for the professional training of master craftsmen, surveyors, agronomists, and other experts, our ignorance is complete.69 No scrapbooks of sketches useful to craftsmen, of the kind known to us from western Europe,70 have survived, and none are even mentioned in Byzantium in the period under discussion, although one can hypothesize that in some cases they must have existed.71 It is a feature of Byzantium that the names of builders and master craftsmen are not known to us. The few names that have survived have almost always done so by chance, since, precisely as was the case in the Middle Ages in the West,72 they were believed to be of much less importance than the names of donors, founders, supervisors, and, in general, those who had initiated the architectural project. In most cases, it is unclear whether the person stated to have made the project was the man who built it, who supervised it, or who nanced it. Neither the unknown person from Chonai who claimed to have built a church in Asia Minor73 nor the Gregorios of the Hosios Loukas monastery who stated that he constructed the marble revetment in the katholikon with his own hands74 can be telling the exact truth, given the magnitude of the projects in question.75 Other instances are equally uncertain, including the cathedral of Berroia,76 the church of St. John in Messene,77 the Porta Panagia near Trikala,78 and all the cases in which the word mai?stwr (master craftsman) is used.79 The word maistor (whence stora") is often used in Byzantium to refer to craftsmen, but it the modern Greek (ma was also applied to other occupations when the speaker wished to refer to a man of skill, great experience, and the ability to pass his knowledge on to others. Names of some of the craftsmen and master craftsmen of the period under discus67 For a manual of practical geometry and stereometry, see N. Svoronos, Recherches sur le cadas aux XIe et XIIe sie `cles: Le cadastre de Thebes, BCH 83 (1959): 1ff. tre byzantin et la scalite 68 H. Hunger and K. Vogel, Ein byzantinisches Rechenbuch des 15. Jahrhunderts (Vienna, 1963). It contains one hundred exercises in calculating materials and labor costs from Cod. Vindobonensis Phil. gr. 65. 69 P. Lemerle, Le premier humanisme byzantin (Paris, 1971), 261. 70 Such as that of Villard de Honnecourt. 71 B 21 (1972): 198; See A. H. S. Megaw, Background Architecture in the Lagoudera Frescoes, JO V. Lazarev, Old Russian Murals and Mosaics (London, 1966), 14ff, 27ff. 72 N. Pevsner, The Term Architect in the Middle Ages, Speculum 18 (1942): 553. 73 a" ejn Mikra' Asi `e rgon th'" eJllhnikh'" Arcaiologikh' K. Kourouniotis, To j " JUphresi j a, AD 7 (1921 22): app., p. 4. The church was a large one, ornamented with marble sculptures. 74 R. Schultz and S. H. Barnsley, The Monastery of St. Luke of Stiris (London, 1901), 28. 75 M. Chatzidakis, A propos de la date et du fondateur de Saint-Luc, CahArch 19 (1969): 141 n. 36. 76 a", Historikogeographika 1 ejpigrafh th'" palia'" mhtro polh" Beroi T. Papazotos, H kthtorikh (1986): 200. 77 nh", Arc.Buz.Mnhm. A. Orlandos, jEk th'" cristianikh'" Messh j JEll. 11 (1969): 12426. 78 a", Arc.Buz.Mnhm. rta Panagia th'" Qessali A. Orlandos, JH Po j JEll. 1 (1935): 39, g. 27. 79 As in the case, e.g., of the Tokal Kilise. See A. W. Epstein, Tokal Kilise: Tenth-Century Metropolitan Art in Byzantine Cappadocia, (Washington, D.C., 1986), 78, no. 1. It is also used to describe Gregorios of Lavra, already mentioned.

540

CHARALAMBOS BOURAS

sion are: Nikephoros, who built the church of Christ Pantokrator in Constantinople80 and emerged as the Besaleel 81 of the entire project; Michael Kolokynthes, who crafted the church of St. John Kalyvites82 in Euboea; and the builders Sergios83 and Demetras,84 whose prestige was such that they witnessed ofcial acts of donation and sale, respectively. Names of craftsmen are encountered in twos or threes, as in the cases of Nikolaos, Theodoros, and Ioannes at Arkasades in Lakonia,85 Tobias, Akakios, and Paulos at Abydos,86 and Ioannes and Kosmas at Burgaz.87 We also have the names of some marble masons, including Vasilis, Vardas, and Ioannes at Tralles in Asia Minor,88 George at Frangoulia in the Mani,89 and the Niketas who put his name to at least four works of sculpture,90 also in the Mani. In the repetition of the name of that marble mason, one can perhaps detect the craftsmans pride in his work and one of the rare Byzantine instances of self-advertisement on the part of a member of the lower class. This also applies to the builder Theophylaktos, who went so far as to mention his birthplace in an inscription at Ligourio.91 This phenomenon reappears late in the Palaiologan period, with the two Greek master craftsmen, both called Constantine, who constructed important fortications and other works for the Gattilusi family92 and for the Knights of St. John of Rhodes.93 In these last cases, however, we ought perhaps to see the impact of the enhancement in the role of the master craftsman that had taken place in the West in the late Gothic period. None of this gainsays my original statement as to the namelessness of Byzantine building activities. For a period of seven centuries and given the size of the empire, we have very few names indeed; more importantly, they are rarely connected with specic monuments, and we know nothing whatever about the personalities of those who bore them. It does not seem necessary to reiterate here the terminology for the special skills of
80 leanya es a Bizanci Pantokrator Monostor, Mitteilungen der UnSee G. Moravcsik, Szent Laszlo garischen Wissenschaftlichen Institut in Konstantinopel 78 (1923): 4347; Mango, Architecture, 24 n. 14. 81 Besaleel was the architect of the tabernacle, according to the Old Testament (Exodus 31:15). 82 a" (Athens, 1971), 28. mnhmei'a Eujboi Archimandrite I. Liapis, Mesaiwnika 83 o ajne kdota ajfierwth ria e r th'" monh'" th'" Qeoto kou tw'n Kribitzw'n, ggrafa uJpe E. Vranousi, Du mmeikta 4 (1981): 2930. Su 84 Lemerle, Lavra, 1:91 (doc. 1). 85 D. Feissel and A. Philippides-Braat, Inventaires en vue dun recueil des inscriptions historiques de Byzance, TM 9 (1985): 32021. 86 goire, Inscriptions grecques-chre tiennes, 1:5, no. 5. Gre 87 Ibid., 44, no. 117. 88 Ibid., 127, no. 347b. 89 Feissel and Philippides-Braat, Inventaires, 3067. 90 ta" marmara'", Dwdw nh 1 (1972): 2144, pls. IXVI. N. Drandakis, Nikh 91 do", Delt.Crist. Arc. nnh" oJ jEleh mwn Ligouriou' Argoli Ch. Bouras, JO Agio" jIwa j j JEt. 7 (1973 74): 26. 92 Konstantinos the master craftsman built two churches in Ainos, two towers on Samothrace, and one tower on Thasos. See F. W. Hasluck, Monuments of the Gatilusi, BSA 15 (19089): 24869, and A. Conze, Reise auf den Inseln des Thrakischen Meeres (Hanover, 1960), 5455. 93 Konstantinos Manolis, or Manolis Kountis (?), built the walls of Rhodes. See A. Gabriel, La cite de Rhodes (Paris, 1921), 1:98, no. 57.

Craftsmen and Building Activities

541

craftsmen involved in the building trade, as listed in the Book of the Eparch and studied by Ph. Koukoules,94 L. Robert,95 and others. The church honored manual labor, basing itself on St. Pauls words in Acts 20. Thus the capacities of craftsman and clergyman were not seen as incompatible,96 and we have an instance of a priest who was also a building worker.97 In the letter from Michael Choniates to Patriarch Theodosios, we nd a learned mans praise for manual labor.98 Speros Vryonis has made a systematic investigation of the involvement of the guilds or teams of craftsmen in the political activities of eleventh-century Constantinople.99 During the lengthy conict between the political (or bureaucratic) aristocracy and that of the military, the role of both the clergy and the banausoi100 (i.e., the people of the marketplace and of the crafts in general) seems to have been important, given that some emperors strove to keep themselves in power by relying on this class. Constantine X Doukas, for example, permitted them to become members of the senate, and Nikephoros III Botaniates planned his ascent to the imperial throne with the support of the working people, that is, of the men of the market and the banausoi. Unfortunately, we have no information about the participation in this ephemeral Byzantine democracy 101 of craftsmen from the building trades, just as we do not know whether during the uprisings of the period they put forward claims relating to their own particular interests. We have already noted the mobility of craftsmen during the Byzantine period. It was only natural that laborers and craftsmen should move away from areas that were lacking in primary production to the urban centers or to large-scale projects where there were jobs to be had. There are many examples of this phenomenon in the early Christian era,102 and Prokopios tells us that under Justinian the Emperor, disregarding all questions of expense, eagerly pressed on to begin the work of construction, and began to gather all the artisans from the whole world 103: the reference is to the construction of Hagia Sophia. Later, during the medieval period, craftsmen moved around the

94 o" kai ` politismo ", 6 vols. (Athens, 194857), 2.1:200201, 2078, Ph. Koukoules, Buzantinw'n bi 21213. 95 rion eij" A. ndon tiers dans des documents byzantins, in Caristh L. Robert, Noms de me j K. jOrla (Athens, 1965), 32447. 96 ajpagoreume mene" kai ne" kosmike " ejnascolh sei" tou' buzantinou' klh rou, E. Papayanni, jEpitrepo ` JIstoriko ` Sune drio, Praktika (Thessalonike, 1983), 14666. in D Panellhnio 97 MM 2:48890 (the case of the priest Gavras, 1401). 98 Michaelis Acominati Opera, ed. S. Lambros (Athens, 187880), 2:48, line 15. 99 a and the Guilds in the Eleventh Century, DOP 17 (1963): S. Vryonis, Jr., Byzantine Dhmokrati 287314. 100 For the denition of the banausoi by Theodore of Stoudios, see PG 99:273; see also Koukoules, o", 22023. Bi 101 For this term, see Vryonis, Guilds, 291 n. 8. 102 Mango, Architecture, 24, 2628; idem, Isaurian Builders, in Polychronion: Festschrift Franz Do lger zum 75. Geburtstag, ed. P. Wirth (Heidelberg, 1966), 35865. 103 n basileu ` " ajfrontisth ` n ou sa" crhma twn aJpa ntwn ej" th ` n oijkodomh `n Prokopios, De aed., 1.1.23: JO me ` " tecni ` tou ta" ejk pa sh" gh'" h panta". English translation from the Loeb edieto, kai geiren a spoudh' i tion, Procopius (London, 1965), 7:11.

542

CHARALAMBOS BOURAS

Byzantine Empire as frequently as their counterparts in the West.104 A very well known reference in the Chronicle of Theophanes tells us that Constantine V summoned skilled craftsmen from all the provinces of the empire to repair the Aqueduct of Valens105 in Constantinople in 766.106 There are other examples of the movement of master craftsmen and craftsmen within the frontiers of the empire that might be mentioned here: from Constantinople to Chios to construct the Nea Moni;107 from Monemvasia to Kythera for the repairs to the church of St. Demetrios;108 from Kea to Ligourio for St. John Eleemon;109 from Paros to Magoula in Lakonia;110 from Rhodes to Crete;111 from various parts of the empire to the monastery of the Great Lavra112 and to Xanthos in Lycia;113 and from Thebes to Athens.114 The movements of Byzantine master craftsmen and craftsmen outside the boundaries of the empire are perhaps of greater interest for the historians of art and architecture: master craftsmen from Constantinople worked at the Holy Sepulcher in the time of Constantine IX Monomachos;115 the master craftsman Nicholas built Our Lady Ljeviska at Prizren;116 and another craftsman, whose name has not survived, built the basilica of San Marco in Venice.117 A team of Byzantine craftsmen worked at Monte Cassino at the invitation of the Abbot Desiderius;118 and a certain Constantine, a marble mason, was employed by the cathedral of Monreale in Palermo.119 Although there is no conrmation of this in the written sources, we can be sure that the rst churches
K. J. Conant, Carolingian and Romanesque Architecture, 8001200 (Harmondsworth, 1974), 108. In medieval Serbia, all the major monuments of what is called the Raskja school were constructed by , Dubrovac ki craftsmen from the Dalmatian coast who moved inland for the purpose. See V. Djuric gratitelji u Srbiji srednjeg veka, Zbornik za Likovne Umetnosti Matice Srpske 3 (Novi Sad, 1967): 85106. 105 Theophanes, 1:440. 106 cole grecque dans larchitecture byzantine (Paris, 1916), 3; Choisy, Lart, 179; M. ChatziG. Millet, Le a tou' JEllhnikou' Eqnou" (Athens, 1979), 9:394; ` te cnh, 10711204, in JIstori dakis, Mesobuzantinh , 444. Moutsopoulos, Kastoria 107 ` Neomonh sia (Chios, 1865), 42. G. Foteinos, Ta 108 n Ceila , ed. C. Hopf, Chroniques gre co-romanes (Berlin, 1873), 346ff, no. XX. Croniko 109 ` te cnh, 394. Chatzidakis, Mesobuzantinh 110 metabuzantina kai mnhmei'a Lakwnikh'", Arc. D. Drandakis, Buzantina j jEf. (1969): app., 1011. 111 tetra dio (Athens, 1987), 41, and commentary by F. Dimitrakopoulos, 106. G. Seferis, To bussini 112 r die Geschichte der According to the typikon of John Tsimiskes; see P. Meyer, Die Haupturkunden fu Athosklo ster (repr. Amsterdam, 1965), 12930, 149. 113 J.-P. Sodini, Une iconostase byzantine ` a Xanthos, in Actes du colloque sur la Lycie antique (Paris, 1980), 148. 114 Michaelis Acominati Opera, 69. 115 R. Ousterhout, The Byzantine Reconstruction of the Holy Sepulchre, in Abstracts of Short Papers, 17th International Byzantine Congress (as above, note 66), 248; see also the complete text in the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 48 (1989): 6678. 116 and G. Babic , Bogorodica, Ljeviska (Belgrade, 1975). D. Panic 117 Demus, Church of San Marco 89, 90, 100. 118 `cle, RArtChr 4 (1893): E. Mu ntz, Les artistes byzantins dans lEurope latine du Ve au XIe sie 182, 183, 185; H. Bloch, Monte Cassino, Byzantium and the West, DOP 3 (1946): 166230. 119 O. Demus, The Mosaics of Norman Sicily (New York, 1949), 102, 155 n. 97.
104

Craftsmen and Building Activities

543

in Russia were built by craftsmen from Constantinople,120 while by way of contrast the contribution made by Greeks to the building of monuments at Paderborn,121 at Pisa,122 and in Asia Minor after its conquest by the Seljuks123 is clearly stated by the sources but is not conrmed by the style of the monuments in question. We also have information about the presence of foreign master craftsmen and craftsmen in Byzantium as far back as the time of Justinian.124 The story of Tiridates the Armenian, who repaired the domes of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople in the late tenth century, is particularly familiar.125 Even so, neither at this date nor later, in the case of a church in Greece126 built by an ingegnere of western origin and experience, can we discern any deviation from the architectural morphology and technique of Byzantium.127 In the fourteenth century, the needs of accelerating development in the Venetian-occupied parts of the empire seem to have resulted in an inux of craftsmen from Italy.128 I have already discussed the ways in which Byzantine buildings were designed and built, noting the lack of clarity in the distinction between the two processes and the dynamic manner in which both developed. Changes to the original plan and the deferment of solutions to the more serious problems seem to have been commonplace in medieval architecture, in the West as well as in Byzantium.129 We can be sure that the economic impact of modications and changes of plan and of the partial demolition required to achieve them would have been very considerable. Psellos has the following to say of the public money wasted on the construction of two imperial foundations in Constantinople, the Virgin Peribleptos130 and St. George of Mangana, respectively: all the royal treasure was opened, and all the golden streams owed there; and, on the

120 fer, ArchitekturO. Powstenko, The Cathedral of St. Sophia in Kiev (New York, 1954), 34; H. Scha historische Beziehungen zwischen Byzanz und der Kieven Rus, IstMitt 23/24 (197374): 197224. 121 a tou' Agi ou ejn Mu J ou Barqolomai ntz, Les artistes byzantins, 185; and K. Trypanis, JH ejkklhsi a, JEllhnika 9 (1936): 17172. Bestfali 122 R. Krautheimer, Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture (Harmondsworth, 1975), 351, 430; tsel seiner Entstehung, O. Demus, Church of San Marco, 97; S. Guyer, Der Dom von Pisa und das Ra nchJb (1932): 352ff. Mu 123 S. Vryonis, The Decline of Medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor (Berkeley, 1971), 235, 236, 378, 389, 390. 124 ` ktisma twn (PG 157:569), the church of St. Polyeuktos in ConstantiAccording to Kodinos, Peri nople was built by craftsmen who had come from Rome. 125 Asoik de Taron, Histoire universelle, ed. F. Macler (Paris, 1917), 133; K. L. Oganesian, Zodehii llou th'" Agi a", Arcaiologi a tou' trou Trdat (Erevan, 1951), 8789; P. Mylonas, JH ejpiskeuh J a" Sofi j 32 (1989): 5960. 126 ou, ed. n tou' Galaxeidi The church of the Transguration at Galaxidi, according to the Croniko K. N. Sathas (Athens, 1865), 197200. 127 di, Delt.Crist. Arc. sei" sto n nao tou' Swth'ro" konta sto Galaxei P. Vokotopoulos, Parathrh j JEt. 17 (199394): 203 n. 13. 128 libe rations des assemble es ve nitiennes concernant la Romanie, 2 vols. (Paris, 1966), 1:170, F. Thiriet, De conomie et la socie te de Cre `te ve nitienne, Bizancio 176, 217; A. Laiou, Quelques observations sur le e Italia: Raccolta di studi in memoria di Agostino Pertusi (Milan, 1982), 17798. 129 R. Mainstone, Structural Theory and Design before 1742, Architectural Review (April 1968): 305. 130 See also Zonaras, 3:57879.

544

ANNA AVRAMEA

one hand, all the sources were exhausted and, on the other, the church that was being built remained unnished;131 and the gold owed from the public treasury like a stream bubbling up from inexhaustible springs. 132 The dynamism of execution and the modications can be identied in a study of the architectural monuments themselves, which display inexplicable joints, masonry of different kinds in different places, pilasters that support nothing, and so on. Among the examples that spring to mind are the Virgin Paregoritissa in Arta,133 the Peribleptos church at Mistra,134 and St. Demetrios at Kypseli in Thesprotia.135 The fact that design was underplayed or even completely absent meant that in Byzantium a model had always to be pointed out to the master craftsman so that he could erect a similar building. Among instances of this are the Nea Moni of Chios,136 the church of Sts. Carpus and Papylus in Constantinople,137 and the church built by Bishop Kyprianos in honor of St. Demetrios.138 In reality, however, the copy was never a perfect one, because in medieval times it was impossible to survey the building or even arrive at a detailed description of it. On this question, the study by R. Krautheimer remains a classic.139 The rst stage in executing any architectural project was to assemble the materials needed, in particular the marble.140 The problem of whether or not quarries operated in middle and late Byzantium will not detain us here,141 nor will we concern ourselves with the sources of other materials.142 However, we are constantly gaining a greater knowledge of the role played by the recycling of architectural material, especially of

131 leio" pro ` n basi ` " to ` e ` " ajnev rgon qhsauro Psellos, Chronographia, chap. 3.14, lines 2023: pa'" me meno" oujk ` pa'sai me , oJ de ` crusou'n ejkei' eijsecei'to rJeu'ma. Kai ` n ejxhntlou'nto phgai ` oijkodomou gnuto, pa'n de ". ejxeplhrou'to new 132 wn tamiei wn, w ` cruso ` " ajpo ` tw'n dhmosi nwn phgw'n sper ejx ajfqo Ibid., chap. 6.185, lines 1921: oJ de mati. English translation by E. R. A. Sewter, Fourteen Byzantine Rulers (Har zonti ejpe rrei tv' rJeu kacla mondsworth, 1979), 251. 133 a et lart G. Velenis, Thirteenth-Century Architecture in the Despotate of Epirus, in Studenic e 1200, ed. V. Korac (Belgrade, 1988), 280. byzantin autour de lanne 134 G. Millet, Monuments byzantins de Mistra (Paris, 1910), pl. 28.2.b. There is no reason for the presence of the pilaster on the north wall. 135 Unpublished. 136 ou (Athens, 1981), 141. a Monh th" Ci C. Bouras, JH Ne 137 W. Mu ller-Wiener, Bildlexikon zur Topographie Istanbuls (Tu bingen, 1977), 18687; the martyrium for the two saints was constructed along the lines of the Holy Sepulcher. 138 me trius et la pe ne tration des Slaves dans les P. Lemerle, Les plus anciens recueils des miracles de Saint-De Balkans, 2 vols. (Paris, 197981), 1:239. 139 R. Krautheimer, Introduction to an Iconography of Medieval Architecture, JWarb (1942): 133. 140 Glykas (496) tells us that it took seven years to assemble the materials for the construction of Hagia Sophia. 141 Mango, Architecture, 22, 24; cf. Sodini, Marble. 142 Of these materials, the most important were bricks and tiles. See K. Theocharidou, Sumbolh metabuzantina n mele th th'" paragwgh'" oijkodomikw'n keramikw'n proi ntwn sta buzantina kai cro nia, o sth Delt.Crist. Arc. j JEt. 13 (198586): 97112.

Land and Sea Communications

545

the reuse of marble architectural members, in the economics, aesthetics,143 and symbolism144 of the monuments of the middle and late Byzantine periods.145 Spolia were used even in the most important of the imperial foundations: in the Virgin of the Pharos, the lling slabs and abacuses were produced by sawing up a royal sarcophagus,146 while in the church of Christ Pantokrator, also in Constantinople, many of the sculptures had been removed from the ruined church of St. Polyeuktos.147 Architectural spolia were valuable items, particularly when they could be incorporated into a new building. We nd them as merchandise,148 spoils of war,149 security for a loan,150 dowry goods,151 and welcome donations.152 Old marble members could be reworked153 so as to remove all trace of cracking caused by damage or adapt them for their new positions. The question of the recycling of building material, with its nancial implications, is directly connected with the attitude of the Byzantines toward the restoration of old ruins,154 their reuse, and, in general, the conservation of the existing built environment. Characteristic here is the praise paid by Nikephoros Gregoras to Emperor Andronikos II, who maintained the old buildings and did not succumb to the vanity of constructing new ones.155 The ways in which buildings were designed and constructed in Byzantine cities were subject, nally, to the building regulations. We know some of the provisions of these regulations from the Nomoi of an architect writing in the time of Julian of Ascalon (6th
In connection with the spolia that were detached from buildings in Constantinople as ornamentation for new structures at Galatas, Gregoras comments on the moving of the elegance from here rito" ejkei'se metaJqesi"). See Laiou, Sto Buza ntio tw'n Palaiolo gwn, 291. to there (hJ th'" ejnteu'qen ca 144 B. Brenk, Spolia from Constantine to Charlemagne: Aesthetics versus Ideology, DOP 41 (1987): 1089. 145 a th'" ajrcitektonikh'", 2:193. For the generalization of the phenomenon, see also Bouras, JIstori G. Goodwin, The Reuse of Marble in the Eastern Mediterranean in Mediaeval Times, JRAS (1977): 1730. 146 Leonis Grammatici Chronographia, ed. I. Bekker (Bonn, 1842), 248.23. 147 R. Harrison, Excavations at Sarac hane in Istanbul, vol. 1 (Princeton, N.J., 1986), 146, 147, 165, pl. 171. 148 Buza ntio tw'n Palaiolo gwn. Laiou, Sto 149 Demus, Church of San Marco, 1013. 150 A. Laiou, Venice as a Centre of Trade and of Artistic Production in the Thirteenth Century, Il Medio Oriente e lOccidente nellarte del XIII secolo, ed. H. Belting (Bologna, 1982), 1516. 151 cit en grec vulgaire de la construction de Sainte Sophie, EEBS 3 (1926): 148 N. Banescu, Un re (eight columns from Marcia). 152 o" tou' Ni kwno" tou' Metanoei'te, ed. Sp. Lambros, Ne o" JEll. 3 (1906): 226 (the Malakinos doBi nation, two columns). 153 " dia kosmo" tou' naou' As they were in the katholikon of the Areia monastery (L. Bouras, JO glupto a" [Athens, 1960], 60, g. 91), in the katholikon of the monastery of Xenophon (T. Pazaras, th'" Panagi rino" dia kosmo" tou' palaiou' kaqolikou' th'" monh'" Xenofw'nto", in 7o Sumpo sio Buzantinh'" JO marma ` Metabuzantinh'" Arcaiologi a" kai ` Te cnh". Perilh yei" ajnakoinw sewn [Athens, 1987], 6364), and, kai j above all, in San Marco, Venice (F. Deichmann, Corpus der Kapitelle der Kirche von S. Marco [Wiesbaden, 1981], 8). 154 C. Mango, I bizantini e la conservazione dei monumenti, Casabella 581 (1991): 3840. 155 Nicephori Gregorae Byzantina historia, ed. L. Schopen (Bonn, 182955), 27477.
143

546

ANNA AVRAMEA

century),156 which were codied at a much later date by Constantine Harmenopoulos.157 It remains questionable whether these provisions were actually implemented in the Byzantine provinces as well as in Constantinople, but the discussion of building legislation has only a slight and indirect connection with the subject of this chapter. This initial approach to the questions surrounding craftsmen and their contribution to the building activity of Byzantium has served to indicate that certain important problems relating to the economic history of Byzantium are intractable. It does not seem that scholarly research will come up with answers in the near future to the very serious problems connected with capital investments in buildings, the percentage of the expenditure represented by labor costs, the productivity of the workers, and the income to be gained from cash investments in buildings across the entire period from the iconoclastic controversy to the fall of Constantinople. However, some statements can be made. Where the organization of production is concerned, we can contrast the differing modes of production involved in major public projects and smaller building works, and we can also be sure that the relative importance of the state and the mode of production represented by state investments differed from one period to the next. The combination of paid and unpaid labor is another signicant factor and may have implications for other areas of concern. The mobility of the craftsmen is an indicationas far as the provinces are concerned, at leastof the existence of free organizations set up for specic occasions, as a kind of company of colleagues, rather than of guilds subject to state control.

156 H. J. Scheltema, The Nomoi of Iulianus of Ascalon, in Symbolae ad jus et historiam antiquitatis C. van Oven dedicatae (Leiden, 1946), 34960. 157 ceiron No mwn h biblo", ed. K. G. Pitsakis (Athens, 1971), 11415. JExa K. Harmenopoulos, Pro